Adam Curtis blogs his fascination with how the Yanomamo appear again and again in the BBC film archive, each time in a new role as our contemporary memes about human beings and nature are in need of ready and exotic illustration:

In all these examples we in the West - both scientists and TV producers - are projecting our ideas and our dreams and our fears onto the Yanomamo. But the Yanomamo are not just passive in this. Each time they seem to work out what the westerners want and then give it back to them perfectly. Or, as in the case of Chagnon they play with him and trick him in funny ways.

Which makes you wonder. Maybe they are just as sophisticated as us in the west? Or maybe even more so?